


Trapped

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Imprisonment, Mental Anguish, Multi, POV First Person, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-08
Updated: 2007-03-08
Packaged: 2017-11-14 07:58:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/513040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slade is a prisoner in his own body as the world spins horribly out of control... by his own hand</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trapped

It's been a strange ride, living inside my skin these past several weeks. Those odd dreams kept coming, dreams that left me so sure I had been up and moving around, doing things and talking to people I never would have.

That all came to a crashing halt the night he killed Wintergreen.

The dreams had been real…Joey, my own son, had been using my body as I slept, setting in motion plans that would cripple his former friends, maybe spiral outward.

He set Rose up, used Wade to shape her into a killer. She may never be sane again, from that dose he gave her of the serum. And he took Wintergreen from me.

As many mistakes as I had made, I never would have seen that, but his mind taunts me now…pushes at me. He's going to make me and everyone I've ever cared about pay.

But first, he has a score to settle with the Titans.

I'm a prisoner, in my own body, and held as fast as if I were chained down again by Rayner's ring.

`~`~`~`~`

Watching the boy fall, his knee shattered, the cruelty in Joey feels…artificial.

It slowly dawns on me, and I curse myself for doubting it, that Joey is still very much in the grip of the corrupted spirits of Azarath.

Of course my boy would no more hurt the kids than I would.

Wish they knew that, wish they could see it.

`~`~`~`~`

For the briefest moment, I hear a psychic scream, my son crying out to me, needing me, needing my protection.

Then he's gone, swallowed up inside Raven's soul self.

`~`~`~`~`

It's after I pay respects, with Rose, to Wintergreen's grave that I realize I'm not alone in my mind. Some of the spirits…I fight them down. I try anyway.

Some days, I wish I could die. The day I wake up looking out, unable to control my body again is one of them.

`~`~`~`~`

I find myself actually in agreement with taking the contact to protect Arthur Light. What the League did…it wrenches at me, makes me sick that they would rape a man's mind like that. Makes me wonder, with all the times I've gotten so close, so involved in fighting them, if I've been compromised.

It's flamed by seeing her there at the fight. I've been with the Canary off and on for a long while now. And she's one of the culprits, according to Light.

Did she have the Martian….

I fight that down. Maybe Light did not tell the entire story. I have faith that my lover would have had something more than a threat against her loved ones to push her that far. It's those damned spirits, trying to work my issues, to tap more of my ability by having me fight them less.

`~`~`~`~`

The Titans handled Light damn well.

I almost cracked their hold on me, seeing the team pull together like that. Good kids, and their win irritated both the spirits and the Society.

I keep trying to break the mental bonds.

`~`~`~`~`

I don't know whether to growl, curse, or be thankful when the Kid gets involved. The growling is for him being an idiot, thinking he can do this.

The cursing is for him being so close, so easily hurt, when the spirits are taking such delight in making me hurt people, ones that were never legitimate targets.

And the thankfulness fades fast. Dick's damn traumatized by something, seems willing to believe every damn lie out of my mouth. He can't see I'm not me any more than the kids, than Dinah…

I'm relieved when Dick manages to save Rose, at least. She'll be safe, with him to watch over her. He won't let her run blind for long. I have faith in my student, ally, and antagonist on that.

`~`~`~`~`

The instant they taunt Harper about Lian, I attack with all the rage I feel. You don't go after people's kids like that. She's a noncombatant, should be for at least ten more years. Yeah, I already know Lian Harper will be a hero; she's Arsenal's, and Dinah's got a hand on her.

I can't let them go through with that madness…and then I see the scars.

Somehow, I shove them down. I walk away. Harper wouldn't listen to me, not right now, not with threats to Lian fresh in his mind.

Maybe I can make it to Raven; she'd see it, she'd know…

Then they're breaking my mind, shackling me back down, and I cannot pull it together again.

`~`~`~`~`

Since my stunt to save Harper's life, I've barely been aware of things. Coming back up to awareness as Bludhaven lies in ruins is one more way of them trying to break me completely.

As I have just broken my word to Dick.

Even if my mind is ever my own, he will be lost to me.

`~`~`~`~`

It's so intimately personal for her.

I growl and rage, trying to find the will to break free of their grasp as she pushes the fight to levels we never attained before.

The attack on the eye, her willingness to take that arm break…is it any wonder she's who I choose to be with when things are at peace?

I'm thankful to the son of a bitch that beat her when he shoots. At least now, she's safe from me.

`~`~`~`~`

It took all three of the Bats. The repressed bastard…my Robin…the boy Robin…

They put me down. The spirits are seething, needing to break free…

I'd rather go to prison than let them rampage anymore. This defeat does not set heavy on me at all.

Until he falls.

My Robin, my perfect student in all but his damn ethics.

They have me loaded up in the transport, unable to see as that drama unfolds. I can't hear, can only see him lying there, the Bat dropping the gun…because of the Wonder Bitch.

I will have revenge.

`~`~`~`~`


End file.
